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The untold tale about income inequality
Saturday, December 17th, 2011
Dec. 17, 2011
The media reports on income inequality never mention the life cycle of earnings experienced by all Canadians. After schooling, incomes are low but increase with age, reaching a peak around age 60 and drop again in retirement… reports also fail to note… temporary influences like illness, divorce, unemployment or lifestyle choices… Similarly, those in the top income brackets are there only for a limited period of time, like the athletes, performers and artists.. between 2002 and 2007 and found that 60 per cent moved into a higher income group after one year, 79 per cent did so after two, and nearly 90 per cent after six.
Tags: economy, ideology, poverty, standard of living
Posted in Equality Debates | No Comments »
Job inequality leads to income inequality
Saturday, December 10th, 2011
Dec. 8, 2011
The cause of income inequality is… technology and changes in the labour market… The solution… is highly paid employment… The real story is not about transfers, social spending and taxing the rich. It’s about jobs, skills and education. These should be the main thrusts of public policy… Ensure that Canada has the most ambitious, tech-savvy, knowledgeable and experienced workers, equipped with skills that cannot be easily outsourced, and income inequality will fade into insignificance.
Tags: economy, globalization, standard of living, tax
Posted in Policy Context | No Comments »
How Keynes made the world a better place
Sunday, December 4th, 2011
Dec. 3, 2011
At its heart, macroeconomics is all about identifying interdependencies in an economy: correctly identify the variables and their relationship to each other, and governments can use them as so many levers to lift people out of poverty and jump-start ailing economies… while Grand Pursuit is a story with many geniuses, there is one genius who towers over them all: Keynes… [However,] at a time when most economists are calling for more stimulus spending and regulation, we instead have governments, our own included, talking up belt-tightening and laissezfaire capitalism.
Tags: economy, ideology, standard of living, tax
Posted in History | No Comments »
Income-splitting is not the solution
Tuesday, November 22nd, 2011
November 21, 2011
Income-splitting does not benefit most families with kids because it offers no help to couples in which both parents earn similar amounts. Nor does it help lone parents. Instead, the Conservative plan benefits a minority of couples in which one parent earns less than $25,000, and the other earns quite a lot more. This scenario is especially common for couples when one parent stays home – 18 per cent of Canadian families. But even for families with a stayat-home parent, income-splitting is insufficient to remedy the time, income and service squeeze with which they struggle.
Tags: standard of living, tax
Posted in Child & Family Policy Context | No Comments »
Bar association blasts tough-on-crime bill
Saturday, November 19th, 2011
November 18, 2011
Canada’s lawyers have joined a host of others – from Texas Republicans to criminologists and civil libertarians – denouncing the federal omnibus crime bill. Ironically titled The Safe Streets and Communities Act, Bill C-10 is being rammed through Parliament by the Conservative majority government although many of its measures are a proven waste of money and effort. Many penology and law-enforcement specialists say the ill-considered legislation could make things worse.
Tags: budget, corrections, crime prevention, ideology, rights
Posted in Child & Family Policy Context | No Comments »
Canada must address the crisis faced by aboriginal children
Tuesday, November 8th, 2011
November 07, 2011
… the council of advocates and UNICEF Canada support another report done by the Canadian Coalition for the Rights of Children. Key among its recommendations are: developing a rights-based lens for reviewing and amending provincial and federal legislation; establishing systematic monitoring of legislation and programs; abandoning proposed changes to the juvenile justice act. The justice act changes will have their greatest effect on aboriginal youth. Shockingly, as the advocates note, an aboriginal youth is more likely to be sentenced to youth custody than to graduate from high school.
Tags: corrections, crime prevention, Indigenous, poverty, rights, standard of living, youth
Posted in Equality Debates, Inclusion Debates | No Comments »
Boomers, seniors aren’t to blame
Tuesday, November 8th, 2011
November 7, 2011
The potential for conflict exists because social and economic trends over the last four decades have worked to increase average incomes and wealth for those approaching retirement, while squeezing the time, income and services for many in the following generations who are raising young kids… We successfully used policy in the past to adapt our environment for the evolving needs of a generation. Canadians can now repeat this achievement for Generation Squeeze… there is no reason to pit seniors or near-retirees against families with young kids…
Tags: budget, standard of living, youth
Posted in Child & Family Policy Context | No Comments »
Proactive plan could save Canada billions
Tuesday, October 4th, 2011
September 29, 2011
The council report says, in 2007, it would have cost about $12 billion to bring all Canadians’ income to a level that was above the poverty line, about half of what it says poverty costs Canadian taxpayers each year. Asked whether the government can afford to take such measures, he said it can’t afford not to. “If we’re already affording $24 billion, it’s kind of a nobrainer to afford $12 billion to make it better,” he said, though he added more money would be needed for measures that help keep people out of poverty.
Tags: economy, ideology, poverty, standard of living
Posted in Social Security Debates | 1 Comment »
Wealthy really are different, and not in a nice way: study
Friday, August 12th, 2011
August 11, 2011
Though economically privileged, people from upper-class backgrounds consistently display deficits in empathy, social engagement, generosity and sensitivity compared to those from the lower classes… “There’s this sense among people that all problems reside in the lower classes.. While some of that is true – they are more prone to diseases of every kind, and suffer health problems because of the difficulties in their lives – the research also points to all these wonderful strengths: greater empathy, greater altruism, greater sensitivity to others and greater attunement to the social world.”
Tags: ideology, participation, standard of living
Posted in Equality Debates | No Comments »
Rising income inequality undermines Canadian success
Monday, July 25th, 2011
July 18, 2011
…the Conference Board of Canada, issued a report warning that too much inequality could actually sap economic growth, wasting some people’s skills and undermining social cohesion. …the big contributor to income inequality was at the top. It will be hard to rein in the corporate greedfest, but we might want to look to the countries that have figured out how to create high standards of living without such corrosively huge inequality. If Denmark, Sweden and Austria can be rich societies that remain much more fair, surely Canadians aren’t so dumb that we can’t learn from their successes.
Tags: economy, featured, globalization, ideology, standard of living, tax
Posted in Equality Debates | No Comments »
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